The presence of multiple national authorities in the EU poses substantial coordination problems for the supervision of multinational banks. The Single Supervisory Mechanism aims to solve the resulting coordination failures. This column explores how banks could strategically react to the introduction of a supranational supervisor. The banking system is likely to endogenously react by reverting to an organisational form for which supranational supervision is actually less essential.

The new European banking supervision system, the Single Supervisory Mechanism, has been operating since 2014. Based on data analysis, interviews with officials and market participants, and nine country-specific studies, this column argues that the mechanism is broadly effective and, in line with the claim often made by its leading officials, tough and fair. However, there are significant areas for future improvement.

Banking policy remains of great importance in the aftermath of the Global Crisis. This column presents recent research on the ability of the Single Resolution Fund to weather any future crisis scenario imaginable. The fund will be built up gradually over the coming decade, but as the losses from any future banking crisis are also likely to arise over a long period of time, the Single Resolution Fund should be sufficient to deal even with a crisis of similar proportions to the last one.

European leaders pieced together an historic compromise last week on a European banking union. This column argues that the agreement, which centred on banking supervision, is only the first step on the long and winding road towards a banking union. But the fact that this step is now essentially confirmed is almost unqualified good news.